


Before Red

by Ro29



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Author Is Sleep Deprived, Basically the summary, Gay Shiro (Voltron), Gen, I didn't mean for this to happen, I want to hug them all now, IT'S CANON YALL, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) Backstory, Not Canon because of what little i know of season 7 episode 1, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), This was written in literally 3 hours while multi-tasking, also, let the man be lgbtq+ without yall trynna justify your ships, no beta we die like men, that doesn't give you guys excuses to make this about ships tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 08:23:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15432921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ro29/pseuds/Ro29
Summary: Keith Kogane has always been left, or hurt. His mother, gone before he knew her, his father gone after never being all there in the first place, the foster system where it was none better. Then he gets meets the Shiroganes and Holts and enrolls in the Garrison and everything is ok again. Until it isn't.





	Before Red

He didn’t remember much from when he was little. Sometimes, if he thought for long and hard enough he could recall the fading memory of someone singing a lullaby in a foreign language. Or the smell of petrichor and mint. But soon enough he would forget even these.

 

(At least until later, when he stares into the eyes of someone he had never really met yet always somehow missed. And the petrichor will be fainter and the situation graver, but he could recognize the smell of mint anywhere after so long without it.)

 

His dad, although he loved him, was never all there. Keith would sit playing on the floor of their little house and glance up to see his father staring out the window to the open sky, never seeming to move. Keith didn’t know what he was looking for, but by the expression on his father’s face, it was something (someone) he had lost and missed deeply. Keith was 6 now and he had figured out that maybe his fathers absent mindedness was his fault. He was always exhausted and seemingly always picking Keith up from school disappointed. Keith maintained the stance that it wasn’t his fault. It really wasn’t. The kids at school had never liked him and he had never fit in. So when one of them taunted him or tried to pick on him Keith protested, usually by harsh words, but not fists, never fighting. So when the teacher was inevitably told by the now crying and fuming children, his father was called in. As it began happening more and more frequently Keith could see his father get angrier and more and more frustrated. So he tried to stop, to ignore them. But it wasn’t enough. After being brought home from school that day, the now 8 year old watched as his father stormed out into the night, Keith’s apologies going unheard and ignored.

 

He wouldn’t be able to return.

 

Because somewhere in town at the same exact time an irrevocably anger bar patron would storm out into the street after having been thrown out and get into his car. The drunk man would make it as far as the backroads before veering off-course and straight into the car where a Mr. Kogane would stare wide eyed as he remembered purple eyes that belonged to two people he would never see again now.

 

Keith sits through a long funeral filled with people who could care less and offer nothing other than a bored, ‘I'm sorry for you loss’. When everyone else finally leaves, Keith stands in front of his father’s grave, alone. He stands in front of the grave alone, and alone now in the world, with the rain making its path down from the grey clouds that overtake a sky that’s supposed to be blue. As he’s lead into the Social Workers car, Keith can’t help but think that it’s fitting.

 

~~~

 

He thinks he recalls the social worker telling him her name at some point in time between the drive and sitting in her office waiting for the family. He doesn’t remember it though and he’s tired, and angry, and scared, so he just stares. His gaze showing his anger while hers is exhausted, a look so similar to the one his father used to wear that Keith could feel the treacherous burning of his eyes as he fought back tears.

 

He looked away.

 

When she stood up to welcome the family Keith kept his head down. He didn’t speak and he didn’t look up. After a few minutes of words being exchanged Keith was ushered out the door and into an unfamiliar car. The family that was fostering him was made up of a couple who looked to be in their 30’s, the woman looked immaculate with not a hair out of place and proper posture. The man was much the same, the difference was in their presence, where the woman made herself look small, the man postured and made certain he was the biggest presence in the room. That much was made clear as he explained the rules to Keith. No closing his door, curfew at 8, meals are at specific times, no loud noises, no leaving the table at mealtimes, stay out of the study, don’t walk with shoes in the house, no cursing, no speaking back, listen to everything they said, don’t argue you’re wrong about everything. Keith pursed his lips, hating it already. He gave a nod and a quiet ‘Yes’ and stared out the window, wanting nothing more than to be anywhere but there.

 

If the rules hadn’t been enough of a warning sign than the expectations were the signal flare. He was constantly belittled if he didn’t look nice enough, if he didn’t eat the proper way or quiet enough, if he didn’t like something they gave him to eat or wear. They yelled at him for tripping or messing up the simplest thing. The one time he had dared refused to wear an outfit they had sent him to his room and locked him in for 3 days with only water and the occasional bathroom and shower break. The school was terrible. Just like last time, he didn’t quite fit in, despite the identical uniforms everyone wore, he was still the odd one out, the loner foster kid who talked back and mouthed off, who was smart despite being considered a delinquent, and so the whispers followed him. He avoided the fights this time though, he had seen how it had worn down dad and he didn’t want to risk it with the unkind demeanor of his fosters, because if it had gotten to the point where his father, who had loved his son and was not a man of anger, had stormed out in anger. He didn’t want to know what they would do if pushed to that point. He didn’t want to find out. The good news is that he doesn’t have to, they dislike him and raising him is more effort than they are willing to expend and his social worker is called and they cite not wanting to raise any kids before being rid of him.

 

His social worker stares after them dumbfounded and honestly Keith can’t blame her.

 

So the 10 year old Keith goes back into the system and is placed in 4 different homes before he turns 12, two of which he refuses to speak about and landed him in the hospital and the other two homes were fine enough, but after he had gotten into one too many fights, he would be brought back. So by the time he’s 12 he has given up hope of finding a placement that lasts and is good, he gets into fights more often, not wanting to let the kids get away with picking on him, he’s still quiet but he makes it clear he doesn’t want others near him.

 

(It’s a lie, he wants friends and people to talk to and laugh with, but after so long without any what’s he supposed to do? He doesn’t know how to and they don’t want to)

 

~~~

 

The newest foster family consisted of a single mother and her son, who was enrolled into the Garrison. Keith likes this placement so far but he’s constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, the both of them are _too_ nice. It’s too perfect, and not the fake perfection of his first home, this was a gentle, kind sort of perfect, the best but worst kind. Because this was the trust-earning type, and he knew just how easily he could end up ensnared and then he would never be able to escape. He decided to ignore them but that plan sure as hell didn’t work. The son, Takashi Shirogane ‘call me Shiro’,  was kind to him and asked his opinion on things, he seemed to genuinely care for Keith and Keith found himself letting the other in, getting close to him and trusting him, which in and of itself was a dangerous thing to do.

 

Aki Shirogane was just as kind as her son and funnier as well, she was at work a lot but when she was home she lit the house up, the entire place felt like a home. Over time he started talking to the two more and he came out of his shell, he was still fairly skittish and still got into fights at school but the Shirogane’s took care of him and helped him and calmed him down when he had a panic attack or a nightmare, they didn’t force him to talk about it if he didn’t want to, but they made it clear that if he needed or wanted to they were there.

 

It helped that, although he was still an outsider and a loner for the most part at this new school as well, he had also met someone who didn’t quite fit in. A ten year old girl in his 7th grade class who had an interest in computers and technology, was wicked smart and was the only one in his class who sat by him at lunch. She mostly kept to herself and her electronics but they had found that they had similar interests, and so Katie Holt and Keith Kogane became friends. Katie had an older brother who went to the same school as Shiro and was an interesting person in her own right, she had little quirks that Keith found to be incredibly enduring and he loved her like a little sister.

 

Looking back on it, it was kind of funny how things connected.

 

Shiro’s friend Matt, a fellow Garrison cadet, had a little sibling who apparently went to the same school as Keith. Shiro brought this up over towards the beginning of the school year, so when he mentioned that he was going over to Matt’s the next day he asked Keith if he wanted to come along. Keith shrugged and nodded, might as well, after all what else was he going to do for the day.

 

That was how Keith met Matt and Katie Holt.

 

After the realization that they all either knew each other or of each other it was fairly easy to get along. The older two were already good friends and with the fact that their younger siblings got along to set their minds at ease, they all decided to play a game of Uno.

 

It was a complete war zone, they would team up with each other only to turn on each other, in one memorable occasion, both Shiro and Katie went from Uno to 14+ cards in a single turn, Katie then exchanged her cards and Matt’s and left the older two teens to search frantically through the deck for a match of some kind to a blue 4. After Katie’s win, which Keith had seen coming from half way through the game after she pulled trick after trick on them all, they all decided to watch a movie, it ended in an impromptu sleepover that was one of the best things to happen to him.

 

~~~

 

Shiro had encouraged Keith to join the Garrison, and Keith, having always wanted to see space (and maybe find whatever it was his father had always been looking for) decided to apply. To Keith’s great surprise and Shiro’s joy, he was accepted. It was pretty standard, but the thing that Keith was the most excited for was the sims. When he finally got to run one he felt exhilarated, it was amazing. To top it all off, he had scored one of the highest scores and had even broken Shiro’s record, which in and of itself was a feat. In fact, thanks to the company of Matt and Shiro, the only problem Keith had at the Garrison was when the other pilots attempted to rile him up. The other 2 helped keep him in check though. A bonus was the fact that Keith could finally meet the infamous Adam Shiro always spoke about, Adam ‘he’s just my flight partner’ was pretty awesome, the downside was now Matt and Keith both had to watch them flirt with each other and pine over the other, it strengthened their camadrie yes, but at the cost of watching two almost grown men tripover their words with each other.

 

It was nice, and peaceful, like home.

 

The first bump came when Aki died. Hit and run, in a way to reminiscent of the last time a car took the life of someone he loved, this time though at least he had someone else, Shiro and Matt and Adam were all there for him and they were all there for Shiro, Matt and Adam worked hard to comfort the two of them. The next problem was Keith’s Guardianship, which now that Aki was dead was transferred to Shiro after a ridiculous amount of paperwork. But all was fine, there was that cargo pilot that kept trying to pick fights with Keith but he ignored him and tried to focus. Adam and Shiro _finally_ got together and it was all ok.

 

Then the Kerberos mission was announced, and both Shiro and Matt were chosen. It was an amazing opportunity but with both of them being gone so long and Shiro being ill, Keith was anxious. Adam was as well, so anxious in fact that he broke of the engagement, and, while Keith could understand, he also thought that the decision wasn’t the right one, but both of them were hurting in some way and needed someone other than themselves, so Keith tried to balance them. The day of the launch Keith saw both Shiro and Matt off. Adam wasn’t there.

 

Later, he found Adam in his room with his head in his hands, and Keith thought it better to leave him alone.

 

Halfway through the mission, 3 months after the launch, the Kerberos mission was declared lost and the crew dead. He had already been having a hard enough time with Shiro and Matt gone, and now that the Garrison had pronounced them dead it was like a black hole had sucked everything out of him. They called it a fucking _pilot error_ as if Shiro could ever crash. He was so angry that he yelled at Iverson for a while before Adam had pulled him out, shaking. Keith realized that he was shaking as well. He looked up to see the unshed tears in Adam’s eyes and Keith felt the dam explode, he sobbed for what felt like forever before he eventually pulled back, furiously scrubbing at his eyes and choking down the sobs. Later that evening he called Katie and they spoke, both of them sure that the Garrison was hiding something, because Pilot error? Really?

 

So Katie snooped around until she was banned and Keith did his best to find out with some help from Adam who was getting more and more despondent, until Adam was reassigned and Keith was found out. He ended up punching Iverson so hard he caused damage to his eye before hopping on a hoverbike and getting out as fast as he could. Stopping when he found the shack from so long ago.

So Keith was alone again and he was drifting. So much like his father had been that it hurt. Then he found the caves. They detailed stories of a blue lion and specified a date. So Keith, with a newfound purpose, lay in wait, and, when the day came, he suited up and grabbed everything he needed. He got on the hoverbike he had taken so long ago and made his way to the crash site. He set the explosives and hid.

 

It was time.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I have no idea how this happened, I was trying to write something for BNHA when suddenly I found myself on a blank doc and typing away, So now I've got 2,600+ words on Keith's Backstory. ALSO SHIRO AND ADAM. I love Adashi. I also love Matt and Pidge to death. Keith is my boi. Also, I haven't seen the first episode so I know little tidbits of info, enough to know for sure this isn't canon in anyway, but noting much. Let space dad be gay without yall fighting over ships, I might write more in the future and put this into a series. Anyway! My [tumblr](http://rose-blooms-red.tumblr.com/)


End file.
